Spirits
by gaymariarobotnik
Summary: What's Shadow's worst fear? It's worse than you think


"So tell me about this place again."

Sonic moved his gaze away from the rain dripping off of his umbrella like a waterfall, wincing slightly as a droplet splashed on his nose. He quickly shook it off, turning to the other hedgehog walking next to him. He was looking to the decrepit mansion looming in front of them, and from a certain stance, you could see a crow or two roaming overhead. How dramatic.

"Apparently this is a popular spot to go ghost hunting. Tails spotted it on one of his conspiracy sights, and he knows I like checking these places out to make sure they're legit. A lot of people got spooked just from crossing over the threshold! I'm gonna prove them wrong." Sonic paused, realizing he was overexplaining.

"And it's been awhile since we did anything exciting. I thought I'd bring you with."

Shadow nodded half-heartedly, continuing his walk with the other up the creaky steps of the mansion. He watched as Sonic politely leaned forward, knocking on the door with a playful smile before opening the door himself.

"Seems like no one's home. Who woulda guessed~?"

Shadow passively rolled his eyes in response, setting their umbrella down next to the door and taking in the ancient house as they stepped through the doorway. Just as the door shut, Sonic immediately began searching the entire area for anything interesting. He pushed through bookshelves, examined knight statues, even poked at leaky pipes. Nothing seemed to be happening..

They eventually continued their search, occasionally hearing a gust of wind that maybe sounded like a wail, but nothing proved it to be otherwise. Sonic was growing bored, and fast. Maybe this house being haunted _was_ just a conspiracy. Why would all of those people show genuine fear then? Maybe it had something to do less with the physical realm, and more with the psyche.

He'd realized that Shadow was being overly quiet, halting his steps to check on him. When he turned on his heel, he noticed he was lagging behind quite a bit, cautiously taking in almost every detail of the house, it seemed. He folded his arms across his chest, a dismissive pout forming as Shadow realized he'd stopped.

"You know if you linger, the ghosts might get to you before I can. We wouldn't want that!"

Shadow's gaze turned up at his voice, realizing he'd been spacing out. He quickened his pace, meeting the other across the hall and giving a silent apology. Something was weird about this place. It was something he couldn't describe..

Sonic recognized the other's behavior a little too late, his ear twitching in curiosity before he hesitantly took hold of Shadow's hand, causing the ultimate lifeform to look up almost in surprise. His hand loosely hung in the other's hold, but he tried to keep his passive demeanor despite the odd feeling welling in him.

"Shadow, if something's wrong, you can tell me. Are you afraid of haunted houses?"

As if on cue, lightning flashed overhead, causing Sonic's hold on Shadow's hand to loosen just enough for him to walk past him, returning to his haughty behavior. Sonic groaned angrily, following on his tail as his stubbornness kicked in. He was going to get an answer out of him.

"You _are_ afraid of them, aren't you~?" Sonic smiled, following him up a flight of stairs.

"No, now would you drop it?" Shadow bit back, continuing down another hallway. This one felt different from the rest somehow…

"Okay well..are you scared of ghosts?" Sonic continued, his hands were on his hips, knowing he could break him soon.

"Sonic, this isn't my first haunted house I've been in. Creaky floorboards aren't going to scare me." Shadow quickly dismissed him, his focus more on the pulling sensation he was feeling in his chest. Something was definitely off.

"Well maybe it was different those other times because you were less focused on ghosts and more focused on getting your memory back." Sonic reminded him, not earning any retort back from him as he rounded a corner. He almost didn't see him, bumping into him gently. Regaining balance, he placed a gentle hand on Shadow's back, realizing he was stiff as a board.

"..Shadow..? Is everything okay?"

Nothing came out of him. It was almost as if he'd been shut off. Staring blankly ahead, hands hanging loose at his sides, Shadow stared ahead in horror as a dozen whispers danced against his ears. They were frozen like the rest of him. _There were too many voices. Too many people here.._

"Shadow, you have to tell me what's wrong!"

Sonic was panicking now, reaching for one of Shadow's loose hands and trying to gain back his attention. He waved in front of his face, snapped next to his ears, anything to sway him. It wasn't until he placed a hand to his cheek that he seemed to break him. His scarlet eyes met Sonic's with fear, his legs weakening as he held his head.

"There's so many of them..they're all here.."

Sonic caught him as he sunk towards the floor, sitting in the middle of the hallway with him. _No wonder this place was so abandoned. All the ghosts were occupying intruders' heads!_ Sonic held him close, wondering how the sound of spirits could spook someone as brave as Shadow.

And then it hit him.

"..is this what you hear on the Ark..?" Was all he could mumble, feeling Shadow's grip tighten on his arm in confirmation. He was too shocked to speak. Sonic wanted to proceed cautiously, needing a way around his fears.

"What are they saying..?"

"..nothing..and everything..they feel safe here but they're afraid of staying at the same time." Shadow tried to explain, his ears drooping in sorrow. He couldn't pick anything definite out from the sea of voices. _So many had suffered here_.. _it was just like the Ark. there were so many..he couldn't save them._

"They're so lost..they didn't want to die..I couldn't help them..Sonic..Sonic I couldn't save them.."

"Okay okay well..just breathe. I'm here. They're just in your head, but I'm here, okay?" Sonic tried to lull him out of his state, holding him to his chest as his fingers brushed gently through his quills.

"Just hold onto me.."

They remained like that for awhile, before Sonic finally got a reaction out of him. Shadow's hand gently gripped at his shirt, less fear in his eyes and more calm. He exhaled, his breath wavering as the voices subsided. It was as if they'd finally passed over where they resided, continuing down the abandoned hallway. The two continued to sit there, simply basking in the silence.

"..I'm totally making you pizza rolls to make up for this.."

—

"So how'd the date go~? Find anything interesting in that old, boring house~?" Shadow's ears perked up in attention at Rouge's prodding question. Her and Knuckles were sitting opposite of the two on the couch and she herself was busy filing her nails.

"I'm sure you fared better than Knuckles!"

"Hey! You'd be scared of ghosts too if you faced an ancient king that can only be hurt by sunlight!" Knuckles quickly defended himself, earning a playful nudge from Rouge and a 'hah!' From Sonic.

"I heard you two had to leave quickly though, did Sonic chicken out~?"

Shadow could feel his stomach drop, feeling all six eyes on him. He couldn't just admit what had happened..

"Yeah, turns out it was wayyyy too spooky for me! I saw a haunted bathtub and I was outta there real quick!" Sonic quickly cut in, and confusion set in Shadow's gaze as he wondered why he was so blatantly lying.

"Shadow was all brave though! He was like" Sonic paused, mimicking Shadow's smug smile as he leaned against him.

" _Sonic, that's just a dumb ghost. You fight those like..all the time._ And then I was all. _You're So Right, Shadow! What would I do without you?_ And then we left because it was dumb."

Knuckles and Rouge exchanged glances, before smiling to the two almost identically. Shadow was still overall confused about the situation, but tried to mimic Sonic's relaxed behavior. "Yeah, that's certainly what happened."

"And then we got pizza rolls afterwards!" Sonic added, smiling proudly at his totally made up story. He confidently folding his arms across his chest, flashing that signature smile of his. Shadow could never understand his motives sometimes, but he appreciated the fact that he hadn't told everyone about his freakout, not even their closest friends. It was something not a lot of people saw in him, but he was genuine in the smallest ways.

 _It was one of the things he loved most about him._


End file.
